Reflecting the tight financial circumstances public schools have been facing, the Orleans Parish School Board voted on Tuesday to start procedures for potential layoffs, as well as the possibility of increasing the district's property tax rate. Neither move is final, but rising costs and uncertain revenues could make both necessary, district officials said.

View full sizeMatthew Hinton, The Times-PicayuneThe Algiers Charter School Association has been awarded another year as the management organization for Edna Karr High School and Harte Elementary. Family Literacy Night at Harte was photographed in March 2010.

Separately, the board extended its contract with the nonprofit group that runs Edna Karr High School and Harte Elementary, giving the Algiers Charter School Association another year as the management organization for both schools, though the district still plans on replacing the association eventually.

District officials said the extra year will offer some breathing room while they sort out how Karr and Harte will be governed in the future. Both fall into a unique category known as a Type 4 charter school. The Orleans Parish School Board serves as the board of both schools according to the terms of a charter contract with the state and it has the Algiers Association handle day-to-day operations such as payroll and benefits. Talks over extending the association's management long-term broke down over the length of the contract renewal.

Now, district officials are holding out the possibility of finding a replacement or shifting to a less complicated Type 3 charter for both schools, in which case an independent nonprofit group would run the school in a contract with the board, the same arrangement that governs the rest of the district's charters.

The board's decision to go ahead with the necessary steps for raising property taxes -- a final vote on whether to do so would come later this year -- drew thanks from various groups that had been lobbying the board to raise more money for schools. Late last year, the board stirred controversy as the only taxing body in New Orleans that decided against keeping its tax rate steady to capture the extra revenue that would have come with rising property values across the city. Instead, the board voted to roll its tax rate back to remain revenue-neutral, forgoing almost $5 million.

Though most of the city's schools fall under the state-run Recovery School District, the board collects local tax dollars for all public schools, and some complained that they could have used the extra funding. It is too late for the board to lift its property tax rate for fiscal 2012, but District Superintendent Darryl Kilbert recommended the district get started with the "necessary publications, proceedings and other actions" to do so for next year.

Among those praising the board Tuesday was Recovery District Superintendent Patrick Dobard, who said, "This is going to be extremely critical for all of the schools in New Orleans."

Still, raising taxes could be dicey politically for board members, who will stand for re-election this fall. Board Vice President Lourdes Moran stopped Dobard before he left the microphone and asked him to point out again that raising the tax rate will benefit all schools, hoping to counter Internet chatter suggesting that local property taxes benefit only schools that the board manages directly.

Leslie Jacobs, a former board member and one of the architects of the city's charter school movement, also praised the board's decision and reiterated Moran's point: "This money is desperately needed for all the schools across the city," she said. "I applaud your action."